Sterile reusable clothing has previously been used in many health care environments. Due to the inconvenience and cost of cleaning and providing sterile storage for such clothing, a switch to disposable products has generally occurred. For example, the demand for disposable shoe covers has increased substantially during the past several years and is now standard practice for most surgical procedures. Health care workers in emergency rooms and other medical environments wear disposable shoe covers to protect the health care environment from microbial and other types of contamination carried by shoes and to protect the respective health care worker from contamination by blood and other body fluids.
In addition to the health care industry, it is necessary in many other industries to wear protective clothing to prevent contamination of clean room type working environments. In certain environments it is also necessary to prevent stray electricity such as static electricity and sparks, from damaging sensitive electronic circuits or accidentally igniting a possibly volatile atmosphere.
Disposable shoe covers are worn in a wide variety of industrial environments for many reasons such as providing either a conductive or non-conductive electrical surface depending upon the environment preventing contamination of both the wearer and the surrounding environment, and providing a non-skid walking surface for the wearer. Disposable shoe covers have often been manufactured from a single type of material. Since it is difficult to find a single material with all the desired characteristics such as, fluid resistance, breathability, non-skid surface, anti-static and durability, some desired characteristics have frequently been enhanced to the detriment of other desired characteristics.
In accordance with the present invention, a disposable shoe cover is provided to substantially reduce or eliminate shortcomings previously associated with prior disposable shoe covers. A disposable shoe cover incorporating teachings of the present invention provides an effective barrier to protect the surrounding environment from any contamination carried by the wearer""s shoes and at the same time assists with protecting the wearer for the surrounding environment. A disposable shoe cover may be formed from material selected in accordance with the teachings of the present invention to protect the wearer""s shoes and feet from contamination by potentially dangerous fluids, liquids, aerosols and/or other sources of contamination in the surrounding environment. A disposable shoe cover may be formed from material selected in accordance with the teachings of the present invention to provide a non-skid surface for walking and/or a static free, electrically conductive surface. A relatively low cost disposable shoe cover may be formed in accordance with the teachings of the present invention from different types of material to provide all or selected portions of the previously noted features.
One aspect of the present invention includes providing a disposable shoe cover formed from a generally quadrilateral sheet of material or blank having three panels. Four resilient or elastomeric bands or strips are disposed on and attached to the quadrilateral sheet of material approximately parallel with and spaced laterally from each other. Two of the elastomeric bands are respectively disposed adjacent to opposite edges of the quadrilateral sheet. The other two elastomeric bands are respectively spaced between the center line of the quadrilateral sheet and one of the elastomeric bands or straps on opposite edges of the quadrilateral sheet.
For one application, the quadrilateral sheet of material may be folded along its longitudinal center line. Adjacent lateral edges extending from the resulting fold are preferably sealed to each other to form the disposable shoe cover. For one application a W-shaped fold is preferably formed in the middle panel of the quadrilateral sheet extending along the center line. The W-shaped fold cooperates with sealing the adjacent lateral edges to provide a better fit between the disposable shoe cover and the wearer""s shoe. For still other applications, the quadrilateral sheet may be folded parallel with respect to the middle elastomeric bands to provide a generally T-shaped configuration at each lateral edge of the quadrilateral sheet. The resulting T-shaped configuration at each end of the quadrilateral sheet is preferably sealed to form opposite ends of the resulting disposal shoe cover.
Technical advantages of the present invention include high speed manufacture of a relatively low cost disposal shoe cover satisfactory for use with a wide range of shoe types and sizes. The present invention allows selecting appropriate material depending upon the intended working environment to enhance the performance of the resulting disposable shoe cover. For example, materials having high fluid resistance, good breathability, nonskid surface, static free and/or improved wearability may be used as desired to fabricate selected portions of the resulting disposable shoe cover. The present invention allows the use of two or more different types of material without substantially increasing manufacturing costs of the disposable shoe cover other than raw material costs associated with each type of selected material.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a disposable show cover may be fabricated from a quadrilateral sheet of material or blank which has been formed from three or more continuous strips or webs of material. For some applications, the three continuous strips may be the same material. For other applications, each continuous strip may be a different type of material to enhance the performance of the resulting disposable shoe cover depending upon the intended working environment. Four bands or straps of elastomeric material are respectfully disposed along each longitudinal edge of the blank and adjacent to each longitudinal junction or seam between the three continuous strips of material.
Further technical advantages of the present invention include providing a disposable shoe cover that does not have a seam on the bottom of the shoe cover in contact with the sole of a wearer""s shoe. Particulate contamination is substantially reduced or eliminated by not placing a seam in contact with the sole of a wearer""s shoe. The present invention also results in placing two bands of elastomeric material extending longitudinally along opposite sides of the wearer""s shoe adjacent to the sole. These two elastomeric bands result in shaping a generally rectangular panel in the middle of the blank into a generally oval configuration corresponding approximately with the sole of the wearer""s shoe.